SAGE Student Research Conference at CSUCI
This week I worked on generating an abstract for my application to the annual SAGE Conference.
Abstract
Over the past hundred years coastal Southern California has been an epicenter for population growth and urbanization. The Calleguas Creek Watershed is located in Ventura County and has long felt the effects of this exponential growth and urbanization. In fact, from 1965 to 1980 the surrounding population increased almost 300% (Towne 1998). Within the watershed lies Arroyo Conejo Creek, which is formed by the confluence of South Branch Arroyo Conejo and North Fork Arroyo Conejo. This stream flows through Newbury Park, CA and is tributary to one of California’s most impaired water bodies, Calleguas Creek. During this growth period Arroyo Conejo and its South Branch were channelized to divert stormwater runoff away from homes. The North Fork however, was left natural as requirement from the City of Thousand Oaks in the development of the master planned community, Dos Vientos. In this experiment I compared the water quality of the channelized Arroyo Conejo and South Branch to the natural North Fork to test my hypothesis that natural streams have better water quality than channelized streams.
For twelve consecutive weeks spanning December 31 to April 18, 2016 I collected water quality data in Arroyo Conejo Creek, South Branch Arroyo Conejo, North Fork Arroyo Conejo, and Calleguas Creek using the YSI EXO2 Multiparameter Sonde. I tested eight water quality parameters on a weekly basis, which include: acidity, chlorophyll, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, total dissolved solids, and turbidity. Using Calleguas Creek as a baseline for impaired water quality, I was then able to compare the water quality of the natural North Fork versus the channelized Arroyo Conejo and South Branch. Specifically, I found that chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen, and temperature had the highest disparity between Arroyo Conejo, the South Branch and the North Fork while other parameters were similar. Calleguas Creek proved to be highly impaired, showing significant water quality discrepancies compared to the other natural and channelized sites on every occasion.
